Saludar settles for bronze in Asian tilt

MANILA, Philippines - Asian Games gold medalist Rey Saludar bowed to Kazakhstan’s Ilyas Suleimenov, 30-17, and settled for the bronze in the Asian Men’s Boxing Championship in Incheon, South Korea.

Saludar failed to connect with his power punches as the Kazakh displayed an awkward wild-swinging style that seemed to confuse the Filipino fighter.

Worse, the 2010 Guangzhou Games gold medalist was slapped with two warnings by the referee (a warning adds 2 points to the opponent) for ducking below the belt line.

Other members of the team were bantamweight Joan Tipon, lightweight Charly Suarez, junior welterweight Rolando Tacuyan and welterweight Wilfredo Lopez. Light flyweight Victorio Saludar missed the trip after injuring his hand in sparring two days before departure.

“I’m personally disappointed with our performance here but we had some close losses,” said delegation head and ABAP executive director Ed Picson. “The coaches’ program calls for our boxers to peak in the Olympic qualifiers in September, we’ll see about that.”

Picson added that ABAP has acquired a strength and conditioning coach, a nutritionist and a sports psychologist to address all the aspects of our national boxers’ training.

“There are some adjustments being made and I think we will feel the positive results in time, hopefully when the World Championships and the SEA Games come around,” he said.

The team’s trip was backed by PLDT, Accel, the Philippine Sports Commission and Powerade with Roel Velasco and Ronald Chavez as coaches.